AngelRose Read online

  I believed my father's anger and hate toward me for what I had done to his family was what created AngelRose, his own perfect version of Hell for me. He hated me that much.

  I hated myself for what I had done. Tabitha and Timmy were two defenseless little kids who were just unlucky enough to have me for an older brother. Did I even reserve the right to call myself their brother? An older brother was supposed to protect them. I'd failed to do so. So no I did not.

  I looked in surprise. I'd walked all the way down to the beach without realizing it. I inhaled the salty air. It felt good.

  End it, Eli. You know you want to. You want to die. Zoey is never coming so what's the point of living?

  I shrugged. Maybe there was no point. I was going insane. I knew AngelRose prohibited me from dying, but what if I went beyond it? The ocean sloshed against my black combat boots, inviting me. The thought of drowning, for whatever reason, wasn’t as scary now.

  I walked forward, mechanically. The icy, metallic water lapped at my legs. My waist. My chest. Finally my head. My lungs began to ache. This was it. The instinctive breath I'd taken was starting to fade. I closed my eyes and let the air out, feeling my lungs fill with liquid. I smiled.

  I'd never been more at peace.

  Chapter 5

  Waking up, I knew in an instant exactly where I was. My brain just couldn't process how I'd gotten there. I was in AngelRose. I wasn't dreaming because I distinctly felt the cold wind on my bare arms. I smiled. I was really here in a place I'd never expected to actually be in.

  Zoey, go to the beach. A voice told me in my head. I knew it wasn't like the voice Eli had in his head, but a warm, nice voice I could trust. I jogged to the beach without really having to even glance at where I was. I knew AngelRose like the back of my hand.

  The cold was really getting to me now. It was freezing, like winter. A bad feeling crept into my gut and one name was on my lips. "Eli!" I had shouted at the top of my lungs in the direction of the ocean without knowing why. It just felt right.

  Bubbles arose from a spot far off from the beach. Eli's dark mass of hair bobbed in the water. It was coming closer. I ran to the shoreline just as Eli was stumbling out of the icy depths. I pushed back his hair from his forehead, an impulsive urge. His eyes stole the breath from my lungs.

  I knew those eyes. I would know them anywhere. They were the eyes of my angel of darkness. The angel of my dreams. I gasped, finally able to breathe again. He smiled. "Hello, Zoey Lockhart. How did you get here?"

  "I don't exactly know myself, Eli. What were you doing in the ocean? From what I understand, you're human and it’s too cold to go for a swim."

  "I wanted to die," he said, but then quickly changing the subject, "but you're here and I'm interested as in how you got here. I didn't think you could come."

  I decided not to press the matter of Eli's strange suicidal tendencies. "I was writing about you and I must have fallen asleep. The weird thing is I know I'm not dreaming."

  "You wanted to come here?"

  "Ever since I was little,"

  Eli snapped his fingers. "Your desire to come here must have been the reason!"

  "But why now? I wanted to come here for a long time."

  I chuckled a little at Eli's intense look. "What?"

  "I've written about you a thousand times and I have never seen you make that face."

  He laughed. "Maybe it's because I finally have someone to talk to other than Sky." He looked down at my bare arms. "You must be cold."

  "A little," I admitted, hugging my arms tighter against my chest. Eli took off his coat, shook it, closed his eyes, and the coat glowed. When he opened his eyes, the coat was dry. "How?"

  He smirked cockily. "I am a super hero,"

  I took his coat and wrapped it around myself. His familiar scent made my heart skip a beat. I was so close to the boy I dreamt about for so many years.

  It was surely too good to last.

  Chapter 6

  I couldn't believe it. The girl of my dreams was finally here, in a realm where I could actually speak with her. I kept expecting her to disappear every time I blinked, but she didn't. I almost dared to hope I could truly be happy.

  I led Zoey to the castle. When she entered, she stopped to take everything in. It was like a dream come true for her. As I feared. Soon she wouldn't want to leave. She would want to stay.

  What would happen to her dreams of making a living as an artist or writer? What would happen to her plans of college?

  Don't think about that, Eli. Just enjoy the fact that she's here. Worry about the details later. The voice cooed seductively. I was very tempted to listen to it. The thought of Zoey living here forever with me, the two of us never growing old, excited me. It meant I would never be alone again. For as much as I loved Sky, it didn't compare to real human interaction.

  "Eli? Eli, are you okay?" Zoey was asking beside me. She looked worried and suddenly all my attention was focused on making the worry go away. If I wanted to keep her here, which a small part of me did, I had to make her happy.

  "Yes, I'm fine. Sorry, I get spacey sometimes. When you're alone as much as I am, you get lost in your own head a lot." I chuckled. Her worry vanished, replaced with a smile.

  She looked around. "AngelRose is perfect. Would you..." A blush spread across her face.

  I smiled. "Zoey, you're a guest. Feel free to ask me anything. I live to please you, after all."

  "Would you possibly mind giving me a tour, Eli, pretty please?"

  "Sure, Zoey," I raced ahead. "Come on, slowpoke!"

  "What a gentleman! Don't you know it's ladies first?" Zoey giggled as she chased me up the steps.

  "What lady? I don't see a lady. I only see you." I smirked, slowing my pace to allow her to catch up.

  She panted. "God, you're fast. What do you do all day? Run track?"

  "No, but I do walk a lot." I chuckled and sprinted past her, tapping her nose on the way. "Tag, you're it. Try and find me."

  "Find you?" she called after me. "AngelRose must have a galjillion rooms!"

  "Nope," I replied, glancing back at her as I continued to jog down the hall. "Only a thousand or two,"

  Zoey found me after about ten minutes. I was in my stage room. "Found you!"

  "Huh?" I was staring so intensely at a play I'd written I'd nearly forgotten our little game. Zoey, trying to be the respectful God-following little saint her parents molded her into, tried not to stare at the play I was reading despite every fiber of her being burning with curiosity. I indulged in teasing her for a few minutes. I grinned finally. "Would you like to see?"

  "Yes, if it's all right." The blush appeared on her face again as she stepped back, unaware she was trying to look over my shoulder. She was worried I thought she was being nosey. I handed her the play. She read it like most people would stare at a video game.

  "Any good?" I asked, trying to appear casual. Her opinion of the play mattered the most since it was actually about her. I was sweating bullets.

  After she was finished, she lifted her head, moving her long blond hair out of her face. "Eli,"

  "Yes?" I felt my shoulders tense painfully.

  "You are a master with words! This was beautiful! Can we perform it, pretty please?"

  I swallowed hard and took a deep breath, relived she liked it. "Of course,"

  She smiled wide. "Thank you!" I crouched down. Clapping my hands on the floor, a red glow appeared in a wide circle around my hand. "Uh, Eli, what are you doing?" I flashed her a grin.

  "Summoning an audience,"

  Zombies, shells of their former bodies with dirt clinging to them, dug their way out of the floor, moaning and groaning. Zoey gasped, but didn't scream. I admired that. Most girls would be running in terror, as I found out the day I summoned some zombies for show-and-tell at school when I was five. I had no idea it was possible to get kicked out of school for that.

  I smiled. "Ready to perform, princess?"

  "Princess?"

  "You
are in a castle, Miss Lockhart,"

  She blushed. "Then are you the prince?"

  "If you find me befitting of that title," I said and began the play, reciting from memory. "Alexis, my darling, run! They will surely kill you if we are seen together!"

  Zoey looked at the script, but she spoke naturally as an actress would. "But Ari, I could not stay away, my love! You mean more to me than the fear of death."

  "Then we are both fools. Our love shall endure Death's kiss." I assumed Ari's position and hugged her to me, seeing the imaginary gunmen to my left. "You shall not harm her! Stop this madness. As your prince, I command you stop!"

  On cue, two zombies, confederate soldiers conveniently dressed for the part, shambled up on stage. They pulled out their ancient rifles, pointing them at Zoey. The zombies were only acting the part, and having no free will of their own, had no intentions of harming Zoey. Even so, I placed myself in front of her, mentally thanking my guarding angel that it was exactly what Ari did in the script. I didn't want Zoey thinking I would actually put her in danger.

  "King's orders, sir." The zombie, the middle finger of his left hand missing making it awkward to hold his gun, said in a gruff voice that hadn't been uttered in at least two hundred years.

  "Now come with us, princess Alexis," The other zombie, half his face eaten away, stretched his hand out toward her. "You wouldn't want dear prince Ari to witness your death, now would you?"

  "No! Please don't make me go! Ari!" Zoey clung to my jacket. I wrapped an arm around her. A tingling feeling of warmth spread through me. Even though I was merely acting, this movement to protect her felt oddly natural. The instinct to protect wasn't in my blood. My father had said so. I was solely born with the purpose to destroy everything I held dear, he had said. The dark part of me, the dark six-year-old Eli, had agreed with him. I was happy to destroy then.

  Not anymore. Spending twelve years of my life in AngelRose had mellowed me considerably. Before I killed my siblings, I'd had no prior acts of violence on my record. Having no idea what set me off that one single moment in time had me walking on eggshells ever since Zoey arrived here. I couldn't hurt her. I vowed never to hurt her. And I never would.

  "Prince Ari! Do you condone your treason to the king by marrying the princess of a rival kingdom we are presently at war with?" The half-face zombie said.

  "That I do," I replied. "And I do not regret a word of it,"

  "Very well," both zombie said in perfect unison and bowed. They walked off stage.

  "Oh, Ari! You were so brave, my love! Do you truly mean it? Will you marry me?" Zoey threw her arms around me hesitantly even though Alexis was suppose to do it with much more vigor.

  "Yes, princess, if you'll still have me."

  She looked into my eyes. Her blue eyes were so pretty, I decided to give in to an old cliché and get lost in them. "Kiss me to consummate our love, dear prince!"

  You do this, kiss her like you've been dying to, and she'll be yours forever. Like you want. The voice said.

  I can't trap her like this... I pulled away. Zoey stumbled back in surprise. "Get out, Zoey! I need to be alone!"

  She looked at me with frightened eyes of a doe caught in headlights. "I'm sorry, Eli. What did I do wrong? Was I too rash?" She looked ready to cry.

  "Get out!" I bellowed, throwing the nearest stapled script I could get my hands on at her. It bounced off the doorframe as she ran out.

  Chapter 7

  Eli didn’t mean it. The nice voice said in my head. He didn’t mean to throw you out like that. He’s scared.

  I smiled. I wasn’t mad at Eli. Bad days happen. He was just having a bad day. He’d come back and apologize. He would make everything okay between us. I just had to be patient and give him some time. He'd cool down eventually.

  Walking down a hallway I wasn't familiar with, I stopped at a door, almost as if I was drawn to it. It had red writing on it. Upon closer inspection, I realized with a sickening, faint-hearted lurch of my stomach that it was blood and I had a good idea just whose blood it was. Most of the blood writing was too faded to read, but I could make out the words Eli and Angel. I smiled faintly. Any association Eli had to do with angels was almost laughable, but at the same time, cute. I was fairly certain in his own way Eli was an angel.

  Careful not to touch any of the blood, I pushed open the heavy black metal door. It felt like burning ice beneath my fingertips and I was glad when I opened the door enough to slip through. The almost pitch black room was amazing when properly lit with a nearby hanging lantern. There were paintings on shelves spanning the walls, a top and bottom row filled with canvases. They were images of dark creatures, but the eyes of the creatures were so human-like, it was like their eyes were all I saw. Hanging from the ceiling were metal stars and moons. The ceiling itself was not painted black like I'd originally thought, but a very deep blue. But the most beautiful thing stood in the center of the room.

  A beautiful, haunting stone angel. It, like all of AngelRose, appeared to be something out of a dream. The angel, its face tilted towards the heavens, was that of a young woman, her stone eyes reflecting pain as if the stone had actually witnessed some unspeakable evil. A single stony tear had been carved on her cheek. I almost wept at the sheer beauty of everything this poor stone angel seemed to represent.

  The trance was broken as I heard running footsteps on the carpeted castle floor. "Zoey! Zoey, where are you? I'm sorry!"

  I considered calling out to him, but then I remembered how he'd yelled at me, and I realized I wasn't quite sure I'd forgiven him completely yet. I stayed silent. The stone angel, I felt, agreed with my decision. It was a bit weird, but it was like she understood my anger toward Eli somehow, however crazy that may sound. Maybe AngelRose was slowly but surely making me go crazy as well. Just like Eli. It was romantic in a twisted sort of way. Two lovers trapped in a castle, destined to go mad together. Poetic.

  I was startled to see Eli, his tense shadow standing in the doorframe. For the first time since I'd seen him, even when writing, he was disheveled, out of breath. His dark hair, usually swept back from his face, now hung in his eyes. His chest heaved with each breath as he stared at me with those violet eyes. He looked so handsome, the moonlight shining through the stain glass window behind him bathing his body in an ethereal glow, making him appear that much more like the angel of my dreams.

  "Eli? What is it?" I asked, my ability to speak having returned along with the ability to form coherent sentences. I was certain I'd always have trouble with those two things whenever staring at Eli, no matter how long I stayed with him.

  "Why are you in here?" His voice, stony cold, betrayed the worried look he'd had when he first appeared. That too had vanished; replaced with a look of anger, like he was mad I'd gone into a room without asking.

  "I...I..." I looked at him helplessly. I couldn't speak, not when he looked at me that way, with such anger.

  He sighed, gazing ahead at the stone angel. His face softened when his eyes rested on her face. His whole body relaxed as if the sight of the stone angel were like a soothing lullaby, one only Eli could hear.

  "Who is she?" I asked. I wanted to know since the angel seemed important to Eli. I could tell it was his most prized piece of art. I got the feeling everything in this room was Eli's own creation. He had no need to simply imagine these things as he did with food and clothes, a power given to him and him alone in AngelRose. He could create anything like this with his own two hands. Eli was a master when it came to art. It was evident in everything he did. His paintings, his music, his plays. His talent was endless.

  Eli brushed past me, hugging the stone woman's waist. "My mother,"

  I didn't know what to say. Eli had said it so faintly and with such conviction I feared my voice would break the strange spell shadowing the room. I just stood there, waiting for something, anything, to happen. The mysteries surrounding Eli were dark and foreboding. I realized I knew nothing of his past. Whenever I wrote about him, his past was blo
cked from my knowledge. I'd fabricated a past for the Eli Cross of my stories, but it had always felt hollow, empty, like a lie. I yearned to know the truth. The real Eli Cross was so much more interesting than the one on paper in stories I wrote seemingly a lifetime ago.

  Eli ran past me so fast I felt the air whoosh past me before I realized he'd even moved at all. I turned and ran after him. He was chucking a rock at the red and blue stain glass window. But it wasn't a rock; it was a small chuck of the base the stone angel stood on. The glass shattered jaggedly despite the small size of the stone. Eli had thrown it with such force it'd had enough momentum to shatter the top half of the window. Sharp pieces rained down all around Eli, but he made no move to shield himself. He picked up a large blue piece and slashed at the wrist of his right arm.

  "I can't die, Zoey." Eli made a creepy sound that I assumed was laughter. He held up his wrist. Two freshly-made scars branded his skin where two gaping holes should've been oozing blood.

  "Why does your skin heal, but leave the scars?" I asked, horrified.

  "They're reminders, Zoey. Reminders of things I cannot change."

  "I'll help you," I said, hugging him tight. He tensed slightly.

  "My mother used to hug me, back before I was banished to this cursed place." He said, leaning against me a little.

  Not the most romantic thing he could've said, but I'd take it. At least he was opening up to me. I was falling in love with him. I had been falling in love with him ever since I'd first dreamed of him. I knew Eli was mentally ill, but he wasn't dangerous. He was just a troubled kid when it came right down to it.

  I hoped I could help him.

  Eli stood up. I smiled. He didn't return the smile. "What were you doing in that room?"

  "Why were you so angry? What did I do?" I countered in a weak voice. "You looked worried when you first walked in. Why?"

  He sighed. "My first girlfriend, Elena, was very delicate. She had never been very strong. She always reminded me of a baby bird before it ever learned to fly. We were in the castle. I was teasing her and just running fast enough so she couldn't catch me. I got carried away and sped ahead. She had no hope of catching me. She must've given up and came upon this room. I found her and got angry. I yelled. I don't remember what I said, but it must have hurt her deeply. She ran from the castle, crying. I was too mad to go after her." Eli paused, composing himself before he went on.